Means for automatically operating garage doors and the like



y 1937- o. MowER El AL I 2,079,919

MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING GARAGE DOORS AND THE LIKE Filed Feb.4, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 May 11, 1937.

O. MOWERS AL ,MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY OPERATING GARAGE DOORS AND THELIKE Filed Feb. 4, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented May 11, 1937 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFiCE Osmyn Mowers and Paul Fred Piepenbrook, Dallas,Tex.

Application February 4, 1935, Serial No. 4,778

3 Claims;

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in means forautomatically operating garage doors, and the like.

One object of the invention is to provide improved means for opening andclosing garage doors, said means having an actuator arranged to beoperated by a motor vehicle,/ or other vehicle passing thereover. V

An important object of the invention is to provide a depressibleactuator for opening and closing garage doors, which is disposed in thedriveway leading to the garage and which is so arranged that upon theinitial swinging of the actuator in one direction, the doors will beoperated; subsequent swinging of said actuator in the same directionhaving no effect on the operation of the doors, whereby the forwardwheel of a vehicle approaching the garage upon striking said actuator,will operate the doors, while the rear wheel may pass thereover withoutagain operating said doors. Another object of the invention is toprovide a yieldable connection between garage doors and an actuatingmechanism, whereby the opening and closing of the doors is cushioned andthe shock and jar of operation is reduced to a minimum.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an improvedmechanism for opening and closing garage doors which has its majorportion mounted underground out of the way and which is so arranged thatitdoe's not interfere with the manual opening and closing of the doors.

A construction designed to carry out the invention will be hereinafterdescribed, together with other features of the invention.

The invention will be more readily understood from a reading of thefollowing specification and by reference to the accompanying drawings,in which an example of the invention is shown, and wherein:

Figure 1 is an isometric view showing a mechanism constructed inaccordance with the invention attached to garage doors,

Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view of the same,

Figure 3 is a plan view,

Figure 4 is an enlarged transverse vertical setional view, taken on theline 44 of Figure 3,

Figure 5 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken on the line 55 ofFigure 3,

Figure 6 is adetail of the yieldable connection between thereciprocating rod and the operating shaft,

Figure '7 is an enlarged sectional view, taken on the line 'l1 of Figure3, and

Figure 8 is a detail of another form of yieldable connection between thereciprocating rod and operating shaft.

In the drawings, the numeral I0 designates a garage of any suitableconstruction and provided with swinging doors H. The doors are shown ascomprising twosections l2 and I3, each section an outer panel A and aninner panel B. The outer panels are mounted to swing on vertical shafts26 and 26'. The shafts have their upper ends mounted in bearing collarsI4, which are fastened to the wall of the garage above the doors. Thelower end of the shaft 26' is journaled in a similar collar 14 which issupported in the floor of the garage, while the shaft 26 has its lowerend extending through a guide collar M.

The panels A and B are hinged at I5 whereby when the doors are openedthe panels of each section fold back against one side of the door frame,as shown in dotted lines in Figure 3. Each inner panel B is providedwith a guide roller [6 on its top edge at the inner end thereof, andthese rollers engage a slot or track i'l formed in the underside of thetop of the door frame (Figure '7), whereby the panels are guided whenswung.

For swinging both sections H and I2 simultaneously when either one orthe other is op erated, each other panel A is provided with ahorizontally disposed arm l8 which extends rearwardly from its upperend. The arms are inclined outwardly from the center of the garagedoors, as clearly shown in Figure 3. The outer end of each arm isconnected by a tie rod I9 to one end of a lever 28 which is pivoted on apin 2| carried by a bracket '22 (Figure 2). The bracket is mounted onthe inner side of the door frame centrally thereof. When the doors areclosed the pivoted lever 20 is in theposition shown in full lines inFigure 3. A coiled spring 23 has one end connected with the inner end ofthe lever and has its other end fastened to an arm 24 depending from theinner side of thedoor frame. The arm is located at one side of thebracket 22, whereby the spring is off center with T relation to thepivot pin 2|. Thus, when the doors are closed, the spring, being offcenter,

exerts its pressure to hold said doors closed.

When one section of the door is swung outwardly, the other section isalso swung through the medium of the tie rods and lever 20. The partsmove to the position shown in dotted lines in Figure 3, and it isobvious that during the initial movement, the tension of the spring 23must be overcome. However, as soon as the lever 2!) has swungsufficiently far to swing said spring past the pivot pipe 2|, then saidspring exerts its pressure to aid in completing the swing of said lever,thereby aiding in opening the doors. After the doors are completelyopen, the spring then serves to hold them in such position. If desired,angular V-shaped guide plates 24 may be secured to the door sill to aidthe rollers H in guiding the door sections into closing position. Ahandle 25 is mounted on the door section l3, whereby manual operation ofsaid doors is facilitated.

For automatically opening and closing the doors, a vertical shaft 25 issecured by U-bolts 21 to the outer edge of the panel A of the doorsection l2. The lower end of the shaft depends below the bottom of thedoor into one end of an elongated underground channel 28 formed beneaththe driveway. The channel is located directly beneath one of theconcrete runners 29 of said driveway, or if said driveway is of solidconcrete directly beneath the path through which the wheels on one sideof a vehicle pass in entering or leaving the garage.

An arm 3!! is secured on the lower end of the shaft and has connectionwith one end of an elongated pitman 3!, which extends the entire lengthof the channel 28. The connection between the arm and pitman is animportant feature of the invention and is clearly shown in Figure 6. Thepitman 3! is tubular and has one end of a short rod 32 telescoping oneend thereof. The other end of the rod is pivoted to the outer end of thearm 30. Connection between the pitman and rod is obtained through acoiled spring 33 which surrounds said rod and the end of the pitman, andhas one end secured to the pitman. It is obvious that reciprocation ofthe pitman will reciprocate the rod through the medium of the spring,thereby swinging the arm and rotating the vertical shaft 26, which inturn will swing the door section l2, to open or close the garage doors.A sleeve 34 surrounds the spring 33 and has one end fastened to thepitman to prevent the spring from bowing outwardly under pressure. Theyieldable connection between the arm and pitman serves to absorb shockand make for smoother operation. If desirable, the arm 3%; may beconstructed of a piece of flat spring steel 30', as shown in Figure 8,which will further aid in absorbing the jar or shock of operation.

For reciprocating the pitman to open and close the doors, a bell cranklever 35 is pivoted on a transverse shaft 36, which is mounted in acasing 31 located at the end of the channel 28. The bell crank has oneleg 38 bent and pivoted to the outer end of the pitman 3|. The other leg39, which is shorter than the leg 38, is provided with a recess 40. Withthe doors closed. the crank is in the position shown in full lines inFigure 5, with the leg 38 forwardly.

For swinging the crank so that the leg 38 moves rearwardly (in directionof the arrow, Figure 5), a yoke-shaped actuator All is pivoted on theshaft 36. The upper end of the actuator extends through a slot 31' inthe casing 31 in the path of a vehicle approaching or leaving thegarage. The actuator is provided with a depending extension 42 which islocated contiguous to the crank 35. The extreme lower end of theextension carries an inwardly extending lug 43, which when swung isarranged to engage either the recess of the leg 39 or the bend in theleg 38 of the bell crank to swing said crank and reciprocate the pitman.The lower end. of the extension is provided with a weight M which servesto swing the actuator to a vertical position at all times.

Assuming the doors H to be closed, the parts are in the position shownin Figures 1 and 5 (full lines). As a vehicle approaches the garage, oneof the front wheels will strike the actuator to swing the upper end ofthe same downwardly, or toward the garage. This causes the lower end ofthe extension 52 to swing rearwardly, and the lug 53 engages the recessin the leg 39 to swing the crank lever 35 (dotted lines, Figure 5)whereby the leg 38 thereof moves rearwardly to pull the pitman 3|rearwa'rdly. Rear movement of the pitman rotates the vertical shaft 26through the arm 3!! and the doors are swung to an open position, asshown in dotted lines in Figure 3. The parts are held in this positionby the offcenter coiled spring 23 at the center of the door frame.

The actuator is, of course, held down so long as the front wheel isengaging it, but as soon as the vehicle moves forwardly far enough topass thereover, the weight M immediately swings said actuator to avertical position. The bell crank 35, however, remains in its sameposition (dotted lines, Figure 5). As the rear wheel strikes theactuator, it is again swung forwardly but since the crank has alreadybeen swung, none of the mechanism is again operated. After the vehicleis in the garage, the doors may be manually closed,

the arm, pitman and crank being operated in a reverse direction to movethe parts to their original positions. Because the actuator alwaysswings to a. vertical position and does not have a direct connectionwith the crank, it is obvious that it will not interfere with theoperation of the mechanism when the doors are manually operated.

When the vehicle is leaving the garage, the doors are first manuallyopened which swings the crank 35 to the position shown in dotted linesin Figure 5. As the vehicle moves away from the garage, the rear wheelwill strike the actuator to swing the same away from the garage, whichcauses the lug 43 to engage the bead in the leg 38 and swing the bellcrank to close the doors. The passage of the other wheels will merelyswing the actuator without operating the mechanism, as has beenexplained. Thus, it is obvious that the driver of the vehicle need neverleave his position within the vehicle, either in entering or leaving thegarage. It is pointed out that by bending the leg 38, as shown, the paththrough which the point of connection between the leg and pitmantravels, is substantially a straight line. other words, this point ofconnection travels through a large are which provides for increasedpower due to a substantially straight line push.

The yieldable connection between the arm 30 and pitman 3i absorbs thejar and shock to make for a smoother operation while the oil-centerspring 23 not only makes for easier operation, thereby requiring lesspower, but also serves to hold the doors H in an open or closedposition. The particular arrangement of the actuator and bell crank isalso an important feature of the invention, because such arrangementpermits manual operation of the doors, as well as allowing the secondwheel to pass over the actuator immediately after said actuator hasopened or closed the doors, without again operating the mechanism. It ispointed out that all the operating mechanism is located beneath theground out of sight, the only visible member being the actuator. Theentire mechanism is simple in construction, there being few parts andfew adjustments.

What we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

l. A mechanism for opening and closing swinging doors including, meansattached to the doors for swinging said doors, a single operating memberattached to said means for actuating the same to swing the doors, and anactuator spaced from the doors for operating said member, said actuatorcomprising a pivotally mounted member, a counter weight on the bottomend of said member adapted to swing said member to a vertical positionafter actuation, a substantially U-shaped yoke pivotally mounted ontheshaft and adapted to be actuated by said member, one end of said yokebeing secured to the single operating member whereby the movement of themember carrying the counter weight will effect an actuation of thesingle operating member to open or close the doors, said actuator beingnormally disconnected from the member and arranged to engage said memberwhen actuated, the arrangement of the swinging means, member andactuator being such that manual opening and closing of the doors is notinterfered with.

2. A mechanism for opening and closing swinging doors including, meansattached to the doors for swinging said doors, a single operatingmember, a yieldable connection between one end of the member and theswinging means, said yieldable connection comprising a cylindricalsleeve secured to one end of said member, a coil spring disposed withinsaid sleeve whereby the spring when compressed cannot buckle and anactuator arranged to be operated by a vehicle passing thereover andlocated contiguous to the other end of said member, said actuatorcomprising a pivotally mounted member, a counter weight on the bottomend of said member adapted to swing said member to a vertical positionafter actuation, a subsantially U-shaped yoke pivotally mounted on theshaft and adapted to be actuated by said member, one end of said yokebeing secured to the single operating member whereby the movement of themember carrying the counter weight will effect an actuation of thesingle operating member to open or close the doors, said actuator beingnormally disconnected from the member and constructed so as to engagethe member to operate the same when actuated by a vehicle passingthereover.

3. A mechanism for opening and closing swinging doors including, meansattached to the doors for imparting initial motion to said doors, meansconnected to said doors adapted to move them to their extreme positions,said means being adapted to be mounted to operate in any plane, a singleoperating member, a yieldable connection between one end of the memberand the swinging means, and an actuator arranged to be operated by avehicle passing thereover and located continguous to the other end ofsaid member, said actuator comprising a pivotally mounted member, acounter weight on the bottom end ofsaid member adapted to swing saidmember to a vertical position after actuation, a substantially U- shapedyoke pivotally mounted on the shaft and adaped to be actuated by saidmember, one end of said yoke being secured to the single operatingmember whereby the movement of the member carrying the counter weightwill effect an actuation of the single operating member to open or closethe doors, said actuator being normally disconnected so as to engage themember to operate the same when actuated by a vehicle passing thereover,the connection between the actuator and member permitting subsequentwheels of the vehicle to pass over said actuator to operate the samewithout actuating the member, whereby the swinging means cannot beactuated more than once by a vehicle passing in one direction, thearrangement of the swinging means, member and actuator being such thatmanual opening and closing of the doors is not interfered with.

OSMYN MOWERS. PAUL FRED PIEPENBROOK.

